Brussels, 09/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 9 October, the Council of the EU decided, “by common accord”, to declassify the negotiating directives for the transatlantic trade and investment partnership between the EU and the US, the TTIP. This decision was immediately welcomed by the Italian Presidency, which has long called for this declassification. “[This] is an important step towards ensuring the transparency of the negotiations with the US. This can only strengthen arguments in support of the conclusion of the TTIP agreement, a pillar of the future economic recovery of EU countries”, said the deputy minister for the economic development of Italy, Carlo Calenda. “It allows everyone to see precisely how the EU wants this deal to work, so it contributes to economic growth and jobs' creation across Europe while keeping our commitment to maintain high level of protection for the environment, health, safety, consumers, data privacy, or any other public policy goal”, added Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who has also long urged the member states to publish the negotiation mandate.
The mandate granted to the Commission by the Council to negotiate the TTIP was approved in June 2013. Seven rounds of negotiations have taken place, the most recent of these last week (EUROPE 11171).
Calenda in favour of partial agreement, De Gucht unconvinced. With the political process of the TTIP negotiations on the backburner due to the renewal of the institutions of the EU and the mid-term American elections, minister Carlo Calenda sparked a controversy, shortly before the meeting of European trade ministers in Milan, on 15 October, by arguing in favour of considering a partial agreement in order to free up talks which are stumbling over extremely technical dossiers. “We should try to reach an overall agreement. But if we cannot reach one by the middle of next year, then let's have a plan B”, Calenda told the international press in Rome on Wednesday 8 October, raising the possibility of a “partial agreement” which would exclude the subjects on which no compromise can be found. “Today it is not possible to reach an agreement that includes ISDS (investor/state dispute settlement clause) because the Germans will never allow it”, he added. When asked about the idea of a partial agreement on the same day, Commissioner De Gucht said that he was not convinced that a phased approach would work. “It's really a single undertaking”, he stressed. (EH)